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Pianist Rueibin Chen to perform at the Hollywood Bowl July 5Interview by Taiwan News July 1,2014

Internationally renowned Taiwanese pianist Rueibin Chen will perform July 5 at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Hollywood Bowl is an outdoor amphitheater that seats close to 20,000 and Chen will be the first Taiwan born musician to perform at this venue with the worldrenowned Los Angeles Philharmonic. Chen will perform the Yellow River Piano Concerto. In addition, Chen has prepared a crossover adaptation of east and west, classical and popular music for this concert. As always, Chen’s superb talent and rich interpretations are expected to attract a full house of music lovers who enjoy his keyboard skills as well as his infectious charm.

Chen was the first piano soloist to perform in the recently completed Wallis Annenberg Center, a performing arts center in Beverly Hills that took 15 years and US$70 million to complete. Chen has noted that it is a truly great honor for him to be the first solo performer to appear there, and he is proud to open the center to the public. In addition, 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Beverly Hills, adding to the meaning of the debut performance in the Wallis Annenberg Center.

Chen was the first Chinese Pianist to perform at the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University early last year, and in February this year he was invited back to perform a Chinese New Year Concert featuring the "Yellow River Piano Concerto." This is always a performance that audiences of all nationalities enjoy and appreciate for its festive Chinese New Year atmosphere.

Chen was also the first Chinese musician born in Taiwan to ever appear in the latest and most modern Center for the Performing Arts in Southern California scale ─ the Orange County Performing Arts Center Concert Hall, also known as the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

Chen was the only soloist to perform at the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Beijing International Film Festival.Chen's performances come during the 140th anniversary commemoration of Rachmaninoff, and Beverly Hills is one of the places where Rachmaninoff spent the twilight years of his outstanding career. He spent much of his life in foreign lands, and many of his works are full of melancholy. Chen, who traveled to Vienna at a young age to study the piano, has many parallels in his own life, making Rachmaninoff's works even more vivid and poignant for him. Chen says sometimes he wonders if he has some Russian blood in his ancestry. He notes that no one ever taught him how to play Rachmaninoff, he just sat down at the piano and let Rachmaninoff's works resonate through his fingertips. With Rueibin Chen, the whole Rachmaninoff experience is something that cannot be explained in words.

Chen’s performance at Beverly Hills echoed his triumphant appearance in Taiwan, with a comprehensive range of Rachmaninoff’s works including his piano transcriptions The Three Nocturnes. This is a feat that demands great skill but produces tremendous feelings of nostalgia for the listener.

Pianist Rueibin Chen

A Chinese-Austrian born in Taiwan, Chen has won a total of eighteen medals, five of them gold, in various international piano competitions in Tel Aviv (Rubinstein), in Warsaw (Chopin) ,Salt Lake City (Bachauer), Athens (Callas), Vienna, Manresa, and Italy (Rome, Rachmaninov, Bellini, and Stresa).
Chen received his first piano lessons from his father when he was five. At the age of thirteen, he was selected by the Taiwanese government in a national talent search and was sent to Vienna, Austria, where he obtained a concert diploma from the Vienna Conservatory. Subsequently, he received a soloist's examination award from the Hannover Hochschule für Musik in Germany and then continued his study under the legendary Lazar Berman.